How do you include assistive technology, like screen readers, in manual audits?

Any manual audit should always include keyboard-only navigation. We also use screen readers to listen through content and spot-check how components function and communicate information. By design, a lot of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines do not necessarily require testing with other assistive technologies because they may interact with the code in different ways. Essentially, if all the requirements at the code level are met, the goal is for it to be flexible enough to work with all kinds of assistive technologies.

While testing with screen readers or other technologies like screen magnification is extremely valuable, certain technologies can sometimes smooth issues over or interact with the content differently depending on its brand. Assistive technology testing must be paired with content and code review because meeting the WCAG requirements depends on the code and content, not specific assistive technology interactions.